“Okay, June Cleaver,” Bella teased.
Jenna came out of the bedroom with her hair askew, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Something smells delicious.”
Bella pointed to the muffins, and Jenna reached for one. She got slapped, too.
“Aw, come on, Mom. Just a taste?” Jenna stuck out her lower lip.
“You guys always eat the tops and leave the rest. Can’t you wait just until Kurt comes back? Then you can tear them apart.” Leanna carried the muffins outside.
As soon as she was outside, Jenna turned to Bella. “She slapped my hand.”
“Mine, too. She just wants to do something nice for Kurt.” Bella grabbed coffee cups and plates, wishing she had woken up in Caden’s arms and made him coffee and muffins. She wondered what he was doing and how things had gone with Evan.
Jenna snagged jam and butter from the refrigerator, then gathered utensils and napkins. They brought everything to the table on the deck in front of the cottage, and Jenna went back in to check on Amy. She came back out with the coffeepot and creamer.
“Sleeping Beauty is totally zonked.” Jenna poured coffee for each of them. “Where’s Pepper?”
“Kurt took him with him on his run. I’ll get sugar.” Leanna went inside and returned a few minutes later. “I slept like a baby last night. Did Amy get up at all?”
“Not that I remember,” Bella said as she fixed her coffee.
“She kept grabbing my boob in her sleep and mumbling.” Jenna pulled off her sweatshirt from the night before. She tugged at the tank top she had on beneath.
“There wasn’t much room. It’s not like she could avoid them,” Bella teased.
Jenna put her hands under her boobs and pushed them up. “Jealousy will get you nowhere.”
Speaking of jealousy…Seeing Leanna and Kurt last night had twisted all sorts of jealous twines in Bella’s stomach. She knew she’d done the right thing by leaving Caden and Evan alone, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to be with them.
Jenna leaned across the table and squeezed Bella’s hand. “Your face is all pinched, so either you need to get laid or you need to get something off your chest, and given that you and Officer Hottie nipped that first one in the bud, what’s going on?”
Bella sighed and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I noticed it, too.” Leanna kicked her feet up on the chair beside her. “And you’d better spill soon. I have to be at the flea market early today.”
“By early you can only mean nine thirty instead of ten, right?” Jenna snuck a piece of a muffin. “Like late early?” Leanna would be late to her own wedding for sure. She arrived everywhere late, no matter how much she tried to be on time.
Leanna pointed to the muffins and glared at Jenna, but her smile told of her softening resolve. “Ha-ha. I want to get there by eight. Remember Carey?” Carey sold records at the flea market, and the previous summer he’d had the booth next to Leanna. Booth placement changed often at the flea market, and Leanna was glad when he’d texted and said he was going to be beside her again for the next few weeks.
“He’s that hot young guy, right?” Jenna asked.
“He’s not that young. He’s twenty-five,” Leanna said. “He has the booth next to mine this week, and we were going to try to catch up this morning before the crowds come in.”
“How does Kurt feel about you and Carey?” Bella picked at the muffin she’d snuck when Leanna was inside.
Leanna rolled her eyes. “You’re kidding, right? Remember last year when Carey kissed me? I told Kurt, remember? He trusts me. Besides, Kurt’s coming, too.”
“That’s another thing I don’t get.” Jenna kicked her feet up on a chair and leaned back. “How come you get a guy who changes his whole life to be with you, and Bella gets a cop who finally, after a million years, takes her up in the fire tower—which, by the way, I’m totally jealous of—and I can’t get Pete to look at me like a woman?”
“I thought he was coming fishing with us next weekend,” Bella said.
“He is. But you know what he said?” She lowered her voice. “’Fishing? That sounds great. It’s been a while since I hooked a big one.’”
Leanna and Bella exchanged an eye roll.
“You’re the queen of innuendos, Jen. How can you be so blind to Pete’s?” Bella shrugged.
Jenna drew her brows together. “You think…” Her eyes widened. “No.” Her face grew serious again. “Maybe you’re right. Oh my goodness. You see? Now not only can I not speak around the man, but my brain goes all wonky, too. Maybe I should just forget him altogether.”
That incited another eye roll from Leanna and Bella. Jenna would never forget Pete.
Bella turned at the sound of Caden’s voice. He and Kurt were jogging up the road from the entrance. His bare chest glistened with sweat, and when their eyes met, his easy smile sent her to her feet.
“Caden.” She hurried off the deck.
“I found him on the access road to the beach and we got to talking,” Kurt explained. Kurt joined the others on the deck, leaving Bella and Caden alone.
Caden went to Bella, and when she opened her arms, he held his hands up.
“Sweaty,” he warned.
“Don’t care.” She hugged him close, and when he leaned down and kissed her, her world righted once again. He was dripping with perspiration, but he still smelled like Caden, and that was a smell that she couldn’t get enough of.
“How’s Evan?”
He wiped his forehead with his arm. “He’s good. He didn’t tell me much, just that he played a game with a group of jerks and it pissed him off. I’m sorry about last night, babe. I didn’t want you to leave, but he needed me.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
Caden lowered his voice. “Were you upset?”
“No.” It was a gut reaction, and she realized, not a completely honest one at that. “I wasn’t upset, but a little disappointed. I know that’s stupid and childish of me. I don’t begrudge Evan for needing you, or you for being with him, but I did miss you.”
He touched her arm, and his eyes warmed. “Me too. I missed you like crazy, and when you didn’t return my call, I thought…”
“Oh no. I’m sorry.” She shot a look at her car, where her phone, and her purse, were probably still on the passenger seat. “I’m still not used to carrying my phone. I got home and everyone was by the fire. Amy was hammered, and the girls and I slept here last night.”
“Here?” He glanced up at the others on the deck.
“Yeah. Like a litter of puppies on Amy’s bed.” She stepped closer and touched the waistband of his running shorts. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
He moved her hand from the fabric. “So am I, but if you do that, everyone will see just how happy.” He kissed her again and checked his watch.
“Do you have to get back home?” she asked.